Blog
Had Myself a Sleazy Seattle Christmas (in the Early 90s)
It was Christmas Eve in Seattle in 1992, I had pneumonia, and I invited Boner and Rat Boy over to my apartment to drink Jack Daniels. The sun had sunk hours before, but you could still see the city lights reflecting off the thick clouds that hung low over the Emerald...
Our best stories and songs come from our own experiences.
Of all the stories and songs in the world, the greatest ones are true. Or, at least, mostly true. I believe that when people create using their own experiences, the work they make is the best. There is no better source of inspiration than your own life. I'm a...
The Blue-Eyed Woman from Hanoi
I went to Vietnam to surf and was forgiven for a war. My knees were bent and nearly touching my stomach as I sat in a small, red plastic chair. I was dripping with sweat and sipping a beer on the curbside of a corner bia hoi in Hanoi, Vietnam. Feeling like a...
Do you need help getting where you want to go?
Where you want to go isn't necessarily a destination. It can be getting your words read or your art seen. It can be getting your team to work together with an innovative mindset or getting your band to play together at a higher level. Where do want your organization,...
Tedium – Rock ‘n’ Roll Meltdown
The distant clouds rose up like snarling beasts curling and black. Bursts of lightning streaked across them. Electric eels swirling and dancing against the demonic darkness. It was as if the deepest depths of the ocean had become the sky and Jarette drove toward it....
What Can You Learn by Meditating with Pain?
Meditating when you’re having physical, mental, or emotional pain is an opportunity for discovery. I’m in my backyard meditating on a gorgeous, early autumn morning in New Orleans. Green and lush but not too hot or humid. The heat of the bayou in the summer has cooled...
My Nights as a Club DJ in Prague in the 90s
The night the avant-garde German theater group performed at the Roxy Klub in Prague between the sets I was DJing, I knew it would get weird. When the troupe lit an explosive, and it went off in the center of the dance floor, it caused several chunks of the plaster...
A Devastating Fire Took My Childhood Overnight
The fire that eradicated most of what I owned when I was 15 years old was emancipation from things. I became a Minimalist with one spark of a flame. But that October day still smells burnt in my memories. It was the day my childhood ended. Walking through the...
Tedium - The Ghost of Bertha and the Elephant Girl
Jarette drove through Sacramento quickly. He wanted to get away from the congestion, the stress, and the thickness of urban traffic. The smell of heat rose around him as morning put on her afternoon dress. He listened to no music, just the whir of the wind. The window...
The beauty of loss is the space to create something new.
Every loss is an opportunity to try again. Every failure is a chance to learn. Every time you don't succeed is a magnificent time to rethink what you want, why you want it, then go for that goal with a fresh outlook. I've failed a lot. As in fallen-on-my-face...